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September
22, 2008; Volume 9, #50

KIRSCHNER & HERRERO TO
HELP REF AT WMSG: Chris Kirschner of the United States
and Eduardo Lopez Herrero of Argentina have been appointed
deputy chief referees for the upcoming World Mind Sports Games (WMSG)
go tournaments, the WMSG Organization Committee announced on September
16. Kirschner and Herrero will work with chief referee Wang Runan of
China and a group of 30 international referees. "I am pleased and
grateful that Chris and Eduardo accepted this difficult job," said
Thomas Hsiang, tournament director for the event, "We will be trying
out the new WMSG2008 Go Rules in these tournaments for the first time
ever. The referees therefore must not only be highly
competent technically, but also have the
demeanor to face and resolve amicably the difficult questions that
might come up. I am confident that Chris and Eduardo will do the job
well." Click
here for the updated new rules.

AGA PUSHES GO FOR
NAT'L GAMES DAY: The American Go Association has asked
the American Library Association (ALA) to add go to their
upcoming National
Games Day on November 15. "The purpose is to
encourage libraries to provide time and space for game clubs," AGAPresident
Allan Abramson tells the E-Journal. "We have asked the ALA to include
go in the list of activities they send to local libraries, butwhether or
not go is officially included, go organizers are free to ask local
libraries to include us." Click
here for details.

U.S. MIND
SPORT GEAR GOES ON SALE: A limited supply of U.S. World
Mind Sports Games t-shirts, polo shirts, tote bags and caps
are now
on sale. "This is the same custom-designed logo the team will
wear in Beijing, except for the words ‘US-AGA TEAM'" reports Roy Laird.
The offer is available only on the AGA website, and Laird warns that
"Supplies are limited; when they're gone, they're gone! Wear the
American team's logo with pride and show the world that you support our
team in this historic event." Photo
by Roy Laird

TROPICAL
STORM DOESN'T DETER GUO JUAN FANS: In the soggy wake of
Tropical Storm Hanna, undaunted by heavy rains, 16 participants in the
second North Carolina Guo Juan Workshop listened
and learned as Guo Juan 5P lectured and provided detailed reviews of
each participant's games. When the workshop -- held on September 6 and
7 in Hillsborough, NC -- was finished, "Hanna was a dim memory, the sun
was shining brightly, and each participant felt stronger, more
knowledgeable and more deeply interested in this wonderful game,"
reports Bob Bacon. Click
here for photos. Photo
courtesy Bob Bacon

NY OPEN SET
FOR MID-OCTOBER: The New York Go Center will host the
New York Open on October 11-12 in New York City. The 5-round tournament
is AGA-rated; the top finisher of the Open Section will receive at
least $300, and other prizes include cash, books, stones and boards.
The entrance fee is $30 but you can save $5 by pre-registering by
October 1st: send your name, AGA number and playing strength
to NY.GO.OPEN@gmail.com

PLAYERS
SOUGHT FOR WORLD STUDENT OZA: There's still time to
register for the qualifying tournament for the World Student Oza, the
de facto world university championship. Sponsored by Japanese publisher
Nikkei Newspaper, this tournament brings representatives from
universities in Asia, Europe and the Americas together for top-level
competition. The deadline
to register for the North American qualifying tournament for
the World
Student Oza is October 19. "Three people have
registered so far," reports AGA Tournament Coordinator Phil Waldron,
"two American, one Canadian." General criteria are residency -- not
necessarily citizenship --in North America, under the age of 30, and
enrollment in a full-time university program, as well as a minimum AGA
rating of 5.0 or its foreign equivalent," click
here for details.

SMARTGO
TOUCH FOR IPHONE & IPOD RELEASED: SmartGo
touch (right) for the iPhone and
iPod touch has been released and is available in the App Store. "You
can now carry thousands of go games and problems in your pocket and
study go on the go," Anders Kierulf tells the E-Journal. "SmartGo touch
makes it easy to find games played by your favorite players as well as
problems at the right level of difficulty." SmartGo touch includes more
than 6000 professional games by over 500 players, including 370 games
by Honinbo Shusaku, 750 games by Go Seigen, and 900 games by Takemiya
Masaki, and more than 2000 go problems at all levels of difficulty.
"SmartGo touch is ideal to record and replay your own games," Kierulf
notes. "Use the standard iPhone gestures to zoom in, or enter moves
accurately directly on the 19x19 board thanks to a magnifying glass and crosshairs.
Play out alternate sequences, delete and insert moves, mark positions
with hotspots, and edit the game info. Email the completed game
record to yourself and your opponent." For a limited time, the
introductory price is just $9.99. Click
here for screenshots and more information.

EDITOR'S
NOTE: We forgot to update the subject line for the
Special Edition of the E-Journal sent out Sunday night, which was not a
re-send of last week's EJ, but included updates on this weekend's
Cotsen Open in Los Angeles (left) and
the German Championship, as well as recent tournaments in Chicago, New
York City and the European Championship for Students and the latest
from the Meijin in Japan. As a bonus for all our readers, we included
several games from the Cotsen, including Yilun Yang's comments on Jang
Bi's 3rd-round game against Juyong Koh and Yang's pro-pro game against
Chao Da Yuan 9P. Our apologies for any confusion. Photo by Tony Lau

CORRECTIONS: On
Defending Titles: Jang Bi 9d, who won the Cotsen in 2007 and
2008, could not have "Successfully defend(ed) his title for the second
straight year" this year, notes a sharp-eyed reader. "He has only won
twice; if he had won three times it would be correct." Clean
Up Your Act: "You really need to clean up (ERASE) the
kibitzing on commented games," writes Greg Rosenblatt. "They detract
from the value. The noise makes it much harder to find the points where
commentary is made. I'd rather not waste my time looking at such sgfs
if they're going to be filled with (crap)." We've gotten letters on
both sides of this issue; some folks agree with Greg and other like the
kibitzes because they provide a flavor of the game audience. What's
your opinion? Click
here to vote. Phil, Not Brian:
In last week's EJ, the photo of Allan Abramson and Mark Rubenstein was
taken by Phil Straus, not Brian Allen. Updated
Ratings: Matthew Burrall, Calvin Sun and Zhongxia (Ricky)
Zhao are all 7d, not 6d (U.S. Team Readying For WMSG). We apologize for
the errors.

NEW PROS
SURFACE IN SHINJIN-O: Because the Japanese
Shinjin-O, or King of the New Stars, tournament is restricted
to players under 26 years old and under the rank of
7P, it provides a chance for new faces
to surface in the professional community. Last year, Iyama
Yuta 8P won, but he was already famous for winning a
title at the age of sixteen. John
Power reports in his column on the Nihon
Kiin home page that this year the finals of the 3rd
Shinjin-O will be between Uchida Shuhei (left) 2P
of the Nihon Kiin and Ha
Yeong-il(above) 4P of
the Kansai Kiin. Uchida is still in his teens and Ha is twenty-three.
Neither has won a title so far. In the first game of the
best-of-three-game match, on September 11th, Uchida won by 8.5 points.

ROMANIA
FIELDS TEAM OF 8 AT WMSG: Eight top players from Romania
will compete in the World Mind Sport Games. The Romanian team includes
Catalin Taranu Nihon Kiin 5P player and the 2008 European Champion;
Cristian Pop 7d, who took 4th place in the 2007 World Amateur Go
Championships (WAGC) and has won many national titles in Romania;
Cornel Burzo 6d, a frequent competitor in U.S. tournaments and
5th-place winner in the 2008 (these four players were part of the 2006
European Championship team); 14-year-old Mihai Serban 4d was the
under-12 European Champion in 2005; 16-year-old Laura Avram 2d is the
2007 Women's National Champion and took 4th place in the 2008 European
Championship Mixed Pairs (with Lucian Corlan) and 3rd place at this
year's Women European Championship 2008; Irina Suciu 1d is a former
National Championship winner in the '90s who now lives in
France. - reported by
Marilena Bara, Romanian Correspondent for the E-Journal

OTTAWA TOURNEY
CELEBRATES 80-YEAR CANADA-JAPAN RELATIONSHIP: The annual
Embassy Cup Go Open Tournament is scheduled for November 16 in Ottawa,
Canada. This year's 3-round tournament celebrates the 80th anniversary
of the establishment of the diplomatic relationship between Japan and
Canada. Registration is free but space is limited - only the first 60
players will be accepted - so pre-registration must be received before
November 15: contact Charles Chang at 613-722-0603 or email chang.charles@ic.gc.ca The
tournament is organized
by the Ottawa Chinese Go Club.

GO ONLINE:
Equipment Discounts And Bargainsby Roy LairdIf
you need go equipment, your shopping just got easier and cheaper, with
the addition of two new sources to the AGA
Vendor Page. While the American
Go Foundation offers the best discounts in
their online
store, these are only available to teachers who will use the
equipment in school, after-school or community teaching
programs. Chess-n-Games carries
an extensive supply of go boards, sets, and clocks, as well as the only
wooden stones we've ever seen. As a "proud partner of the AGA," they
will give any AGA member 10% off; just call their 800 number and give
your AGA membership number to claim your discount. Another new option
is Ming
Zhou Oriental Imports, offering Asian furniture, decorative
items, and much more, including a whole section of equipment for go,
mah-jongg and paigow, a Chinese betting game similar to dominos. With
wooden boards at $5/ea., wooden bowls $9, a 19x19 magnetic set for
$8.75 and so on, their prices are hard to beat. There's a $100 minimum
for "members" only (membership is free), purchased from any of more than
twenty categories -- everything from furniture and jewelry to wind
chimes, "feng shui" and decorative water fountains. You can even make
money selling their stuff yourself: when you set up your account, look
closely at the bottom and you'll see that you can become an
"affiliate." To do so, you'll set up your own account and link at the
Mingh Zhou site, then put that link on your website, in your e-mails,
however you'd like to promote your new business. You will receive 5% of
whatever the people who click through your link sell. It's one-stop
shopping for every Sinophile, and especially for clubs and teachers,
it's a real money saver! Special thanks to Boris Bernadsky of The New
York Center for spotting this one. The AGF is certifying new programs
now, so apply if you're interested, but even if you just need some good
entry-level playing equipment for yourself, you've got some attractive
new options.

GO QUIZ:
Ratings Poll Results
Not surprisingly, our Ratings
Poll generated a lot of response. As always, I really enjoy reading
your feedback, candid remarks and insightful comments. While this was
by no means a scientific poll, our readership is international, and the
results provide some interesting and useful data.
The overwhelming majority of
you - 67% -- said that AGA ratings should be generally consistent with
ratings around the world, but it is also important that they be stable
and internally consistent; 23% say that AGA ratings should be stable
and not impacted by other nation's systems. If we were to match our
system to other countries, it's no contest, 81% prefer the Europeans
while just 19% say the Japanese. On the question of how our ratings
compare to the Europeans, 71% say the Europeans are between one and 1.5
stones stronger, while 20% say it's 2 stones. Almost half of you (45%)
say the AGA ratings are one rank stronger than the Japanese, while 34%
say they're more than a rank stronger. One of the most fascinating
stats is that 39% of you expressed "no opinion" on having your ratings
being dropped 1 to 1.5 points; a 6-point majority - 34% -- said you
disagree or disagree strongly with such a drop, while 28% said you
agree or strongly agree.
All very interesting, but what
do these stats tell us? Here are some tentative conclusions. First,
folks have extraordinary respect and faith in the AGA's rating system;
whether or not you're completely satisfied with where it sits on some
ideal scale, you like its operation. "The AGA rating system is the most
accurate and stable system I have ever seen" commented one respondent,
summing up the views of many. Beneath the apparent willingness of many
of you to ratchet our system down were a number of folks suggesting
that "Since we are "weaker' than some and ‘stronger' than others,
perhaps we are right." Of course, we also had the brand-new shodans who
did not relish losing that milestone. I particularly liked "I've been 3
dan for four years and it would be hard to explain to all my
non-go-playing friends how I suddenly became a 2 dan - it is hard
enough to explain anything about go to them at all." The strongest
support for the idea tended to come from strong players wanting their
rank to be respected, with a few folks complaining that amateur 8 dans
and 9 dans were embarrassing on an international amateur scene that
tops out at 7d. On the clear choice of the European ratings over Japan,
I suspect that it's simply our comfort with a similar statistical
rating system. Internet ratings were lauded by some but fiercely
denounced by others. "Under no circumstances should any server's rating
be the common currency - they are a joke," said one. That seems a bit
strong, and ignores the huge advantages server ratings have in terms of
amount of data and international exchange, but the question comes down
to what is being measured and as one respondent noted, "discrepancies
between online and real world ratings can be large in either direction
- any serious national rating system must be based soley on tournament
results."
Finally, I think the poll
results indicate that while many have felt that rating inflation is a
problem, incremental adjustments will not be welcome. We have tended to
believe that wholesale downranking would be met by screams of horror,
but, at least from this poll, it seems that if this issue is to be
addressed, folks would prefer that it be a one time adjustment, instead
of some mysterious "in the box" machinations. Interesting stuff; stay
tuned!. THIS WEEK'S QUIZ: Which player
holds the Nihon Kiin record for most wins? Is it Sakata Eio, Cho
Chikun, Rin Kaiho or Kobayashi Koichi? Click
here to send us your choice, plus your usual welcome
comments. - Keith Arnold

GO
CLASSIFIEDSELL IT, BUY IT OR TRADE IT HERE with nearly 13,000
go-players worldwide! Classified ads are FREE and run for 4 weeks;
email your ad to us now at journal@usgo.org

GO
CLASS IN VA: Go Class/Club at The Boys and Girls Club in Manassas, VA
every Wed at 6:30P during the school year starting on Sept 17, 2008.
Open to kids age 6-18, no experience needed. Click
here for facility/membership information, contact
Mike Dobbinsmike1003@hotmail.com for
go class/club specifics. (9/15)

FOR SALE: EVA foam go sets; include EVA foam go board (reversible 19 x
19 in one side and 9x9 in backside). Also included are 180 + 180 EVA
foam go stones.Total cost of the set is US 9.40 + freight (from
Brazil); good discounts for more than 5 sets.
Contact Roberto Petresco at rpetresco@yahoo.com (9/8)

HELP WANTED: Help create a tradition of public, in-person games in the
United States. Users, testers, designers, and developers are needed for
a new open-source web site dedicated to promoting Go in the United
States. Click
here for details. (9/1)

FOR SALE: Japanese 1.5cm folding board, $40. Two Japanese 1.8cm folding
boards, $50. Pair of Japanese medium-size chestnut bowls, $50. Set of
very old, Japanese, 4.5mm shell & slate stones in chestnut
bowls, $85. Buyer pays shipping. The boards and bowls are all in very
good, gently used condition. Some of the antique shell stones are
chipped, as should be expected for their age, but they are quite usable
and very unique. You just can't buy new stones like these anymore.
Contact Anton at antonninno@yahoo.com (8/18)

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Articles
appearing in the E-Journal represent the opinions of the authors and do
not necessarily reflect the official views of the American Go
Association.

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Go Association
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